White Eagles (paramilitary)
The White Eagles, also known as the Avengers, were a Serbian paramilitary group associated with the Serbian National Renewal and the Serbian Radical Party. The White Eagles fought in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo during the Yugoslav Wars.
In the 2003 Vojislav Šešelj indictment from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the group is included as an alleged party in a joint criminal enterprise of ethnic cleansing, in which SRS leader Šešelj allegedly took part. In the indictment the group is identified as "volunteer units including 'Chetniks', or Šešeljevci". This association was denied by Šešelj. On 31 March 2016, he was acquitted in a first-instance verdict on all counts by the ICTY, a ruling which still holds today, barring an unrelated conviction from its successor for instigating deportation of Croats from the Serbian village of Hrtkovci.
Name
Although the group's members were occasionally referred to as Chetniks, the name White Eagles comes from the anti-communist and pro-fascist paramilitary unit that was formed during World War II, known as Serbian Volunteer Corps. White Eagle refers to the national symbol of Serbia, the double-headed white eagle under a crown.History
The White Eagles were founded at the end of 1990. The unit's emblem was a white double-headed eagle on a red shield. Its leaders were Vojislav Šešelj, Mirko Jović, Dragoslav Bokan and Milan Lukić.Croatian War of Independence
They participated in attacks on the settlement of Slatina in western Slavonia, Lovas in October, and Vukovar in November 1991. The Voćin massacre was the killing of 43 civilians in Voćin by the White Eagles on 13 December 1991.Bosnian War
In the Bosnian war, White Eagles participated in attacks on Bosniak paramilitary units that occupied Bijeljina and defended Višegrad. In 1992, Šešelj's men, together with Arkan's Tigers, captured Zvornik.Members of the White Eagles have been accused of the Višegrad massacre, and the Foča massacre.
The prosecution claimed that these killings were incited by Šešelj's speech, which was dismissed by the Hague Tribunal. There are also unproven allegations that the White Eagles operated a detention camp in Liješće.